February Challenge

Four Short Weeks

  by Diana

OH man...I too can't believe February is over- I didn't expect it to but it went by sooo quickly. People have been asking me all along how the challenge is/was- honestly it was great!!! A bit easier than I anticipated, and I'm now in the habit of cooking and bringing lunch every day, versus my previous go-to of picking something up for dinner, if not eating out with friends.
 
On Friday, a snow day for me, Charles came by for lunch and dinner-- I cooked whole wheat penne with broccoli and cream sauce, and then kimchi fried rice.

For the final weekend, my parents came in with friends and took us to dinner (Best skirt steak@ Cafe Loup), and o Sunday, I made French toast with delicious multigrain rustic bread from Trader Joe's. I also ate leftovers from the night before.

Today felt like a continuation more or less of the Challenge, as I brought lunch and cooked linguine and chicken for dinner for my brotha and me. My one splurge- Compost cookies from Momofuku Milk Bar. 

With a couple bdays, a trip to FL, and a lot of catching up to do in March, I already know I'll be busily spending. But I'm also pretty confident I'll still spend less than I did in Jan by sticking to my new habits. Thanks guys for letting me be a part of this year's Feb Challenge!! and def. sign me up for the next.

Freebies to finish it off!

  by Sei-Wook Kim

the last day

  by Melanie Lee

Our last day!  Our final balance was $0.02 after I bought one lemon, a tomato, and garlic.  Two cents!  Perfect.  I'll be sure to add my two cents about the whole challenge later, har har.  (Updated here.)

For dinner, I made shrimp scampi and creamed spinach with goat cheese.  I also made banana pancakes this morning and red bean soup for lunch. 

We're done!  Congrats to everyone!

Peking Duck

  by e-roc

Last Nice Dinner

  by Melanie Lee

Because of KAFFNY, Pete and I won't be eating dinner together this weekend, so I made a nice meal last night to celebrate the near close of Feb Challenge.  On the menu was chicken marsala, beets with goat cheese, and potato gratin.  Yum.

Bloomberg called another unnecessary (but much appreciated) snow day, so we had a sit-down breakfast of congee, dried pork, kimchi, and spam eggs.  With soy sauce, some other seasonings, and eyes closed, fried spam almost tastes like Chinese sausage. 

Cilantro $0.50

Balance: $1.53

On the menu for this weekend?  Maybe another go at mapo dofu, more shrimp, and beet greens?  We have quite a few groceries left, but it's possible we might need to break out the ramen. 

Sort-of Cooking with Friends

  by Diana

For a cheap weekday get-together, a couple friends came over on Monday and we made a whole wheat penne vodka with chicken. Pretty much just pasta, jarred tomato sauce, vodka, peas, and cream of mushroom soup to substitute for half-and-half.  Lou brought Ben & Jerry's, wine was courtesy of my bro, and after all that it was watch TV and pass out time.

I also "entertained" again yesterday with some frozen lasagna and frozen veggies, and then some oatmeal when that wasn't quite filling enough. My poor gf.

2 pieces of chicken: 1.80

Since today was a snow day and my pantry/fridge were looking pretty empty, I went to Trader Joe's for a VERY exciting but restrained shopping trip (eggs, produce, beans, peanut butter, bread, frozen spinach and peas) and spent $14.91. So that leaves me with $19.87. almost there!!

So there were two of these...

  by Melanie Lee

...identical containers in the fridge.  One had the macaroni dish I made last night.  One had half a red bell pepper.  Guess which one I brought to school?

5 very greasy fried dumplings $1

Dozen eggs $3.49

Balance: $2.03

Ground beef and Leftovers

  by e-roc

This past week, I made a few beef dishes with the ground beef balls from my freezer.  The first was a flatbread burger with tomato, swiss, mushrooms, and a fried egg.  The second was a beef curry, using cumin, karam masala and paprika for flavoring.  And on Saturday, as Wook mentioned, I put together some leftovers from the Barrel fridge with a couple of potatoes Pete brought to nourish furniture assembly: fajitas with Reggie's ribs and sour cream, and nuked potato with some of my leftover ground beef/onions with sour cream and Wook's Kimchi.

Wook's Pineapple Serves a Noble Purpose

  by Melanie Lee

Pineapple Spam Shrimp Fried Rice--SO YUMMY.

Using leftover ricotta, I also made Lemon-Ricotta biscuity muffins (or muffiny biscuits?), courtesy of Giada.  They were delicious!  I will be making these again when we can afford more ricotta and lemons.

I splurged on this last set of groceries:

Goat cheese $2.99
Criminis $2.49
Bananas $1.55
2 tins of anchovies $2.98
Swiss cheese $4.95
Cumin $2.29
Organic half and half $4.89 (!)
5 lb. bag of sugar $4.39
Beets $3.99
2 lb. frozen shrimp $14.99
Bag of onions $0.99

Total: $46.10
Balance: $6.62

Looks like Pete and I have been spending the most out of everyone!  We have enough left for a carton of eggs and a few other necessities.  Otherwise, we have enough food to last us the rest of the challenge!  (So I think...)

Last Few Days

  by Diana

I’ve been eating lots of leftover curry, soup and pancakes in recent days, sprinkled with a few meals out. The soup originated from a can of chickpeas that has been burning a hole in my cabinet, along with whatever stuff (celery, onion, corn, chicken, etc) was lying around.

My aunt and uncle were in town on Saturday night, so we went to a place in my hood called 41 Greenwich. I had a little of my bro’s crabcake, a burger, lots o Pinot Noir, and a caramel brownie sundae. It was all super delicious.

On Sunday, I went up to Barnard with Louise- I did NOT plan on eating there, but ended up going to the Mill- I know everyone hates that place, but we love it! I ordered kimchi fried rice which I felt bad about since I had made it myself for much cheaper at the beginning of the month, but at least it wasn’t too pricey, with leftovers for lunch today. Plus theirs was greasier and tastier.

I also just ate a piece of pizza that my boss bought.

The numbers

Kimchi fried rice- $10.31

Piece of chicken for soup- .90

Balance: $36.58